asing thing, an interesting thing, the
orator must be able to convince; and to convince others he must have
strong convictions.

Great speeches have become the beacon lights of history. Those who are
prepared acquire a world-wide influence when the fit occasion comes.

Very few people ever rise to their greatest possibilities or ever know
their entire power unless confronted by some great occasion. We are as
much amazed as others are when, in some great emergency, we out-do
ourselves. Somehow the power that stands behind us in the silence, in
the depths of our natures, comes to our relief, intensifies our
faculties a thousandfold and enables us to do things which before we
thought impossible.

It would be difficult to estimate the great part which practical drill
in oratory may play in one's life.

Great occasions, when nations have been in peril, have developed and
brought out some of the greatest orators of the world. Cicero,
Mirabeau, Patrick Henry, Webster, and John Bright might all be called
to witness to this fact.

The occasion had much to do with the greatest speech delivered in the
United States Senate--Webster's reply to Hayne. Webster had no time
for immediate preparation, but the occasion brought all the reserves in
this giant, and he towered so far above his opponent that Hayne looked
like a pygmy in comparison.

The pen has discovered many a genius, but the process is slower and
less effective than the great occasion that discovers the orator.
Every crisis calls out ability, previously undeveloped, and perhaps
unexpected.

No orator living was ever great enough to give out the same power and
force and magnetism to an empty hall, to empty seats, that he could
give to an audience capable of being fired by his theme.

In the presence of the audience lies a fascination, an indefinable
magnetism that stimulates all the mental faculties, and acts as a tonic
and vitalizer. An orator can say before an audience what he could not
possibly say before he went on the platform, just as we can often say
to a friend in animated conversation things which we could not possibly
say when alone. As when two chemicals are united, a new substance is
formed from the combination, which did not exist in either alone, he
feels surging through his brain the combined force of his audience,
which he calls inspiration, a mighty power which did not exist in his
own personality.

Actors tell us that there is an indescri